The present invention relates generally to the construction of a meter for a vehicle. More specifically, the invention relates to an analog meter having a single light source for illuminating a face thereof. The present invention may be embodied, for example, in a speedometer, a tachometer, a fuel gauge, a temperature gauge, or so forth for a vehicle, but it will be appreciated that it is also useful in other applications.
A Japanese Utility Model First Publication (Jikkaisho) No. 60-37820 exemplifies a conventional meter for a vehicle.
The above conventional meter comprises an opaque face on which characters, marks, or the like are printed, a needle having a shaft which is inserted into a hole in the face and rotatably supports the needle, a light source disposed within the meter, behind the face, and a light-guide plate for guiding light emitted from the light source into the needle through a hole in the face, the plate being located on the interior of the face.
The needle further comprises a body which points toward the characters or the marks on the face and a reflecting portion which is made of luminous paint. The reflecting portion is formed by a coating on the body. The light led through the light-guide plate is reflected from the reflecting portion toward the outside of the meter. Thus, the needle is caused to glow and can easily be identified.
In the conventional meter, the needle can be seen in the dark by its own glow. But the characters and the marks printed on the face can not be visually identified thereby and therefore another lighting means is required for illuminating them. Thus, the construction of the meter becomes complex, thereby causing the manufacturing cost to increase.
If another lighting means is provided for lighting the face, the characters and the marks of the entire face are illuminated. As a result, the light from illuminated characters and marks may be reflected from the side windows of the vehicle, in such a way as to interrupt the visual field or to make observation through the side windows difficult. Accordingly, an improved meter for solving the above problems has been desired.